Are you a Big Mac or Quarter-Pounder with Cheese kind of person? Don’t even start with the Filet o’ Fish or McRib. We have chosen these items from the McDonald’s menu since 1954, all because of the indefatigable efforts of a man named Ray Kroc. In John Lee Hancock’s 2016 movie The Founder, Michael Keaton plays an enterprising man in his 50s who took a mom-and-pop operation based in San Bernardino, California, making it a household name across the United States and worldwide. Though not a full-fledged biopic, The Founder is based on the true story of how Kroc, a floundering food service sales representative, discovered brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, portrayed by Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch. They invented the first fast food model in their burger stand 75 years ago. Since then, over a billion have been served, and there is a fascinating story behind why we ended up with a “Mickey D’s” franchise on every other street corner in America.
The Founder is The Social Network of fast food, complete with a main character who, for all his apparent shortcomings as a person, still holds the audience’s attention throughout. In The Founder, Ray Kroc is a middle-aged salesman who has tried his hand at peddling dozens of products without much success. He has a lovely and supportive wife, Ethel, played by Laura Dern. However, he struggles to keep a roof over their heads despite his relentless work ethic and cockeyed optimism. When he happens upon a sale to the McDonald brothers, who are interested in the milkshake maker he is pushing, he becomes enamored with how these two brothers have revolutionized how food is prepared and delivered to the masses.
Ray convinces the brothers to let him franchise the operation, spreading it to the Midwest, but eventually, he grows tired of jumping through the many legal hoops to open new locations quickly per the contract he signed with them. He is struggling financially even as the franchisees are making a ton of money. When he meets Harry J. Sonnenbaum, played by B.J. Novak, he discovers a way to subvert the contract and buys out the actual founders of McDonald’s to start opening up locations nationwide, including the one right around the corner from you.
The thing that sets Michael Keaton apart from other performers is his commitment and sense of urgency that he brings to his characters. He has sort of an “everyman” quality about him that makes you care what he cares about. As a viewer, you want to see him rise to the challenge and get whatever he’s chasing. He’s had this quality going all the way back to films like Gung Ho, Mr. Mom, and even as the wildman in the Beetlejuice films. In The Founder, he has his eyes on the golden arches of McDonald’s, and though he may seem a little insensitive in how he gets it, it is a pleasure to be taken along for the ride, even if he is playing a man who isn’t necessarily morally squared away.
Keaton’s portrayal of Ray Kroc is certainly not without its flaws. From the somewhat unscrupulous way in which he wrestles control of the franchises away from the McDonald brothers to ignoring his biggest supporter and wife, Ethel, in a failing marriage—as a workaholic, he ultimately puts his personal life on the back burner. These are things that he definitely could have handled better. Still, Keaton’s silver tongue and smooth sales pitch make Kroc a compelling character despite his questionable personal flaws. He is so good that the audience is fully invested in his character’s arc, despite it already being written about in history books, akin to what Mark Zuckerberg has done for social media over the last 20 years with the advent of Facebook.
That’s the challenge of playing a real-life person, and Keaton is up for the task in this movie, which just landed on Netflix. The story of Ray Kroc, a salesman who turned two brothers’ innovative fast food eatery, McDonald’s, into the biggest restaurant business in the world, is told with a combination of ambition, persistence, and ruthlessness. The Founder offers a captivating look at how one man’s determination reshaped an industry and continues to impact food culture to this day. It is currently streaming on Netflix in the U.S. For anyone intrigued by the fast food phenomenon or the story behind the iconic brand, watching Michael Keaton’s outstanding performance is a must.
